Tag Archives: Jobs

The process of negotiating a job offer between the candidate and client can be one of the toughest tasks that a recruiter will face. One must balance what the candidate feels that they are worth in the market with the client’s budget and concern for internal equity. In many cases, both sides are fairly close, so the offer process goes pretty well and you have both a happy candidate and client. However, in some cases, the candidate may have an unrealistic impression of their worth in the marketplace or the client may not have a realistic idea of what the particular role should pay. In these cases, it is the role of an experienced recruiter to bring both parties to an agreement.Continue reading Negotiating An Offer of Employment→

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I get asked by candidates quite often if they can pay me to help them find their next job. I tell those candidates that 99% of recruiters (including myself) are paid by the client when we make a placement. Companies come to a specific recruiter and engage his or her services to recruit specific talent to fill specific roles. Generally, recruiters do not work as “talent agents” to represent individual candidates to “shop” them around to various companies. I will never accept money from a candidate in order to help them find a role. I don’t feel that it is morally right to do this.

However, there are firms out there that will charge candidates really good money to represent them in their job search. Under the guise of “Career Counseling”, these firms will help candidates put together a resume, coach them on how to interview, and then tell the candidates that they will market their resume to various companies and recruiters. There is a substantial fee for all this so-called service. In addition, these firms generally get the candidates to sign an agreement that the candidate will owe a certain additional fee to the Career Counseling company if the candidate finds a job, whether the Career Counseling firm helps makes the placement or not.

There is something wrong about this business model where you lead the candidate on to think that your firm will open up doors for them and never do.

My advice to candidates is NEVER pay anyone to help you find your next job. It may be OK to pay someone a small fee to assist you to prepare and/or update your resume, but most recruiters that I know, will give advice to candidates for free. In addition, there are a lot of free templates online that a candidate can use to prepare their resume.

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I updated the analysis (previously done on January 21, 2016 and March 24, 2016) using jobs posted within 100 miles of Philadelphia PA (MAS Recruiting’s office location) and then broke the jobs down by salary level. I gathered my data from jobs posting on Indeed and LinkedIn; two of the most popular job posting sites. Here is the new June analysis and the comparison to January’s and March’s data:

The comparison data between LinkedIn and Indeed is remarkably similar until you get to the month of June. Up until June, the data showed that between 75% and 80% of all the posted positions are paying 80k or less in salary. The March data also showed that recruiting and hiring has not increased at all since January, and that we remained in a flat job market. However, June’s data from LinkedIn should a large drop in the overall number of jobs, but also showed that total percentage of jobs paying less than 80k dramatically jumped from 77.4% at the end of March to 90% on June 14.

The data from LinkedIn is probably a much better indicator of the health of the overall job market since it cost money to post jobs on the site as compared to Indeed where most of the job postings tend to be free posts. I would imagine that the job totals on Indeed would lag those on LinkedIn.

This data shows that companies continue to be extremely careful with their recruiting and hiring and are willing to add lower salary positions to fill some needs, but will not generally hire higher salaried roles unless absolutely necessary. All of this ties in with what I have seen in my business since Q4 2015. I don’t see the job market getting any better soon since summer tends to be a slower time even in the best of job markets.

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Can you really put your resume on every job site out there? And is that the best strategy? Sorting the good advice from the misleading can be time consuming and frustrating. Here is a list of some of the most influential and useful career sites of 2014, all of which are updated regularly, see plenty of traffic, and are easy to access through various social media channels.

Most Influential Career Sites in 2014

Indeed.com
Indeed, launched in 2004, is the most visited job website in the world. 140 million unique visitors check the site every day. Part of its success is due to the fact that it’s actually an aggregator, providing job listing from many other websites, all in one place. It’s operating in 50 countries.

CareerBuilder.com
Next on the list is familiar named Career Builder. Partnered with AOL and MSN, it provides a huge selection of jobs and operates in 60 markets over 24 countries. They also own and operate other smaller sites that cater to specific markets, including WorkinRetail.com and sologig.com.

Monster.com
Despite the size, and in fact partially because of it, Monster is an important career site to use. It’s one of the largest online job markets in the world, and it continues to grow every year. With about a million jobs and a million resumes, plus over 63 million job seekers accessing the site per month, it’s a great place to start your job search.

Simply Hired
This website may be simple, but it is not small. With over 8 million job listings, it is the largest independent job search engine. It is so extensive that it is used as an economic indicator by some economists.

LinkedIn
LinkedIn isn’t a proper job search site, however it is an important networking tool and does lead to a lot of job placements. By connecting with your friends, co-workers, previous co-workers, and the broader network from there, you might get that personal introduction to the perfect job.

Beyond.com
Beyond is another search engine for job sites. They’ve provided a different kind of tool, which gives them a leg up in certain ways. Some compare Beyond to LinkedIn, because it offers a unique way to display your resume and has online communities for professionals to join and benefit from.

CollegeRecruiter.com
This website offers many internships and entry level professional jobs as well as plenty of sound advice about landing that first job. It includes many helpful and encouraging success stories from those who are entering the job market and land permanent positions via internships.

Glassdoor.com
Glassdoor broke ground last year by creating a tool that helps you connect your skills with jobs that you may not realize you’re qualified for. Their Job Explorer feature allows you to map potential jobs which you might overlook on a different site. The rollout in July exposed a few quirks which are mostly smoothed out by now.

Mashable Jobs
Mashable Jobs was launched only four years ago, but already boasts high traffic and over 3,000 employers who consider it a top destination, along with over 11,000 job postings in its extended network.

Brazen Life.com
The mission of this site is to fundamentally change the way that people find professional opportunities and the ways that employers find talent. It’s used by thousands of companies, universities, and membership organizations.

While searching career sites does not replace the work of improving your actual resume and applying for jobs, you can learn a lot about the market and your opportunities by scouring the sites that appeal to you. You don’t have to use all 10, but make sure at least a few of these are on your list.